Tag Archives: the wisest person I know

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Wouldn’t it be great if we had a test for measuring wisdom? Then we could simply elect the wisest person in the land to be president. But determining wisdom is subjective. What or who I consider wise, you may not. Intelligence, on the other hand, is measurable. We could elect the candidate with the highest I.Q. but that wouldn’t work. One can be very, very smart and, at the same time, very, very unwise. In making our choices, whether it be for politicians, teachers, spiritual leaders, etc., we should be aware of the important difference between intelligence and wisdom. Boiling it down to one word, the difference is judgment. All wise people have good judgment; high I.Q. people may have good judgement or they may not.

Can young people be wise? No, they cannot. You can be young and smart but not young and wise because to be wise you must live life, you must experience and you must acquire knowledge. The philosopher, Mortimer Adler, said, “To say a wise young person is equivalent to saying a round square. Wise and young will never go together. It’s impossible”. How about wise and old? The misperception is that as we age, we get wiser. For a few, yes; for the many, no way. What happens as we grow older, is that we grow older.

Jerry Seinfeld doesn’t need the work. Largely due to the huge success of Seinfeld, among the most popular sitcoms in the history of American television. Seinfeld has a net worth estimated by Forbes at $820 million, (not to mention 46 Porsches.) According to Forbes, at 60, he’s the wealthiest actor alive. Yet he continues to write jokes and tour the country, performing stand-up comedy in locations like the Kennedy Center, Foxwoods, Atlantic City, Caesar’s Palace and Calgary. He also continues to perform before a national audience, but this time it’s via the internet, not television. In 7/19/2012 he began broadcasting a comedy web series on Crackle.com, which, in the summer of 2014 is entering its 4th season (it has been renewed for 6 more seasons.) He calls it Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee. Seinfeld and his guest are not telling jokes. Instead they talk about all aspects of comedy in a funny and entertaining way., The format is for Seinfeld to pick up a guest comedian in a different vintage car each week and take him or her out for a cup of coffee and conversation at a restaurant. Topics can include all aspects of daily life, including family and parenting. Guest comedians have included Larry David, Alec Baldwin, Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks, David Letterman, Jay Leno, Tina Fey, Don Rickles,, Howard Stern, Chris Rock and Louis C. K., among others. To view any or all of the episodes so far, click here. What motivates Seinfeld to keep going? In an in-depth interview in the 12/20/2012 NY Times, Seinfeld says he has a creative itch he can’t scratch, that he plans to do stand-up into his 80s and beyond (a la George Burns) and that he intends to die standing.

Marc Chernoff and his wife, Angel write a blog offering tips for productive living and general self improvement. In an article titled 23 Things People Who Love Their Lives Are Doing Differently, Marc includes the following: “They accept that not allrelationships are meant to last.- This is a harsh truth. And what we do with our pain is nearly everything. To punish people for not loving us is a heartbreaking, broken sort of justice. It just doesn’t work out for anyone. So let the wrong ones go, willingly. Ultimately, you will meet two kinds of people in life: those who build you up and those who tear you down.

In the end, though, you will thank them both. Because the wrong relationships eventually lead to the right ones.” Click here and scroll down for the full article.

We are an acquisitive society. We like to own things. According to one source, the average American household contains more than 300,000 possessions. Psychologists tell us we accumulate more than we need in the false hope that it will lead to happiness. Joshua Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus are two gentlemen whose mission it is to promote a lifestyle that helps people question what things add value to their lives. They believe that “by clearing the clutter from life’s path, we can all make room for the most important aspects of life: health, relationships, passion, growth and contribution.” If you want to access more information on getting rid of the excess stuff in your life, check out Millburn and Nicodemus’ website, the minimalists.com. Here’s one of their suggestions: “….ignore the bullshit advertisements and determine what you need based on your own life, not what you’ve been told you need.” Finance author and radio host, Dave Ramsey, sums it up: “We buy things we don’t need with money we don’t have to impress people we don’t like.”

One of the biggest irritants of modern day flying is having to wait forever on the ground, sealed inside the motionless plane, waiting for take-off. Pulitzer-prize humorist, Dave Barry, in a 2/21/2014 0n-line column for the Miami Herald, puts it this way: “A century ago, it took a week to get from New York to California; today you can board a plane at La Guardia and six hours later–think about that: six hours later!–you will, as if by magic, still be sitting on the plane at La Guardia because “La Guardia” is Italian for “You will never actually take off.” Perhaps the funniest satire on airline travel is a classic skit from the “Carol Burnett Show” on “no-frills” airlines. Carol plays the stewardess, while comedian Harvey Korman plays the first class passenger and Tim Conway, the coach passenger. This skit appeared some 40 years ago (9/20/1975). Click here and decide if it has stood the test of time.

Marty Nemko, who is a pretty smart guy himself–a career coach, columnist and author of seven books–writes an article for Psychology Today titled, Life Advice From The Smartest and Wisest Person I Know. It’s an interview with 86 year old, Michael Scriven, described as a “polymath”, one who has a wide knowledge of many different subjects. Scriven has had over 400 articles published in the leading journal of 11 disciplines, from philosophy to math to evaluation. He’s so smart that even Albert Einstein has asked him questions. Here are some of Scriven’s observations in the Nemko interview: On seeking advice: We all ask experts for advice but those experts may not have the expertise to really advise us well. Take expert advice with a grain of salt. On the key to the life well-led: It’s important to divorce yourself from egotism, especially from materialism and focus on serving others. On choosing a career: Do realistic thinking about your career but when in doubt, jump off the train. There’s more room to make a difference and to feel special if you take a road less traveled. On the existence of God: The best theist argument is that something supernatural created the first natural object. That’s God.